Get the employee transfer steps lined up for your sale or acquisition

It helps to think about this in stages rather than as one document. First, we review the transaction structure and the sale terms that affect staff, such as who is taking on obligations, what happens at completion, and whether any employee-specific conditions need to be met. We then look at the existing employment arrangements, prepare or review transfer documents, and flag communication and timing issues. This is particularly useful where the deal timetable is moving quickly and the employee piece needs to line up with signing and completion.

The short answer is that the existing paperwork and the real working arrangements both matter. We will usually want the draft sale agreement, a list of affected workers, copies of employment agreements or contractor terms, any policies that are relevant to entitlements or notice, and a summary of who is expected to move to the buyer. If there are side arrangements, informal role changes, or staff whose day-to-day work does not match their written contract, that is important to flag early because it can change the legal analysis.

A frequent issue is assuming the written contract tells the whole story. In practice, risk can sit in accrued entitlements, inconsistent role descriptions, bonus arrangements, notice periods, restraint clauses, or uncertainty about whether someone is really an employee or an independent contractor. Another pressure point is timing, especially if the sale documents say one thing but the proposed staff communications say another. We help identify where the employee transfer mechanics do not align with the broader transaction and what legal steps may be needed before completion.

The key issue is usually whether the employee arrangements are straightforward or whether there are factual complications to work through. A smaller transfer with clear contracts and a settled deal structure can move relatively quickly. Timing often stretches where there are multiple staff, inconsistent records, negotiations over who bears employee-related risk, or uncertainty about status and entitlements. We can give a more realistic timeframe once we have seen the sale documents and the employment material, because the sequence often depends on what must happen before completion can safely occur.

Yes, we can assess that issue as part of the transfer work. This matters because the factual working arrangement can matter as much as the contract wording. For example, someone described as a contractor may in practice work in a way that raises employee-style risk, which can affect the sale structure and the transfer documents. We can review the available material, explain the legal indicators that matter, and flag where the uncertainty creates transaction risk. Final outcomes can depend on the facts and are not something any lawyer can promise in advance.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Employee Transfer Pack service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.